The big New Jersey sting
Zachary Roth has a good summary of the arrests in New Jersey, worth reading, and this statement in it leapt out at me:
Those arrests, and subsequent charges, can be divided into two categories — public corruption and money laundering.
The former netted 29 of the 44 people arrested, including Peter Cammarano III and Dennis Elwell, the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, and Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, all Democrats; as well as state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican. Much of the alleged corruption was said to be tied to election fundraising efforts.
My emphasis. I think forbidding ALL cash donations to politicians and funding all campaigns from public funds is the only way out of the stew of corruption that infests much the country and Congress in particular. But that will never happen, because legislators would have to pass laws that would exclude them from the money trough.
